


First Light

by mimsical



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Birthday, Established Relationship, Fluff, M/M, Snow
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-29
Updated: 2017-07-29
Packaged: 2018-12-08 13:10:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,697
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11647236
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mimsical/pseuds/mimsical
Summary: Jake squirrels Dirk away for an early-morning birthday adventure.





	First Light

**Author's Note:**

  * For [lasciviousWildheart](https://archiveofourown.org/users/lasciviousWildheart/gifts).



> happy birthday, taz.

When you wake up, the light in your bedroom is just on the edge of predawn. You can’t ascertain what woke you for a moment until your senses come online enough to feel Jake’s hand on your shoulder. 

“What?” you mumble. 

“Time to wake up,” he says. 

“It’s so early.” You roll over onto your back. Jake is fully dressed, glasses on and everything, and is standing expectantly with both eyebrows raised. 

Goddamn it. 

“Why?” you try. 

“It’s a surprise,” Jake says. “Happy birthday, by the way.” 

You groan and squint at the clock. 6:45 a.m. This is just inhumane. “Yeah, happy fucking birthday to me.” 

“You’d better hurry and get up,” Jake says. “Or you’ll miss the fun.” It’s not quite light enough yet to tell but you’d bet good money that he winks. “Don’t bother getting out of your pajamas and don’t take more than a few minutes sprucing up, you hear me, mister?” He pokes your shoulder. 

“Okay, okay, I’m up,” you say. “I didn’t pull any of this bullshit for your birthday, you know. Let you sleep in as much as you wanted.” 

“Don’t make me drag you out of bed,” Jake warns, and takes a step back. “You’ve got ten minutes at most before I come back up here and if you’re not ready I’ll pitch a real fuss, don’t think I won’t, and then we’ll wake Janey up and wouldn’t that just be real friggin’ rude. You’re not going to make me disturb Jane’s slumber in her own house, are you?” 

“Jesus shit, I said I’m up.” You sit up. “I’ll be down in, uh. Less than ten minutes. No need for fuss.” 

“Good!” Jake says, and leaves you to it. You spend minimal time brushing your teeth and scowling at the mirror with a sleep-deprived glare. Later this afternoon you’ll be sure to claim birthday rights to a nap. When you wend your way downstairs Jake’s made you a breakfast sandwich with scrambled eggs and absolutely refuses to tell you what’s going on. 

It only takes you a few minutes to eat and by the end Jake’s acting about ready to vibrate out of his skin with excitement. He leads you to a different room and you get an inkling of where this is going when Jake shoves all of your snow gear at you. 

“I have to put all this on?” you ask dubiously, but dutifully exchange your pajamas for thermals and some fleece. Now fully and unfortunately awake you note that Jake is already wearing his cold weather underlayers. It’s a dorky but good look on him. His longjohns are tight-fitting but jarringly lengthy. He’s barely even flashing any ankle. “Are we going to visit Troll Kingdom or something?” 

“We are not,” Jake says, and between blinks cycles through his wardrobifier to his snow pants and jacket. He puts a scarf, wools socks, and snow boots on while you manually dress yourself. It’s way too hot with it all on. Winter here at Jane’s home where she’d been hosting you Jade and Jake’s birthdays a few days ago is definitely cold, but it’s not near cold enough to warrant all these clothes. You shove your feet into your rarely-used turquoise snow boots and raise a meaningful eyebrow at Jake. 

“You’ll actually need these for once,” he says, and leans forward to kiss you quickly on the mouth before sliding your shades onto your face. “Okay, ready?” 

“How should I know without knowing the destination?” you ask. 

“Alright, smarty pants.” Jake tries to roll his eyes but the effect is diminished by the smile he can’t fight off. He holds out both hands to you in a gesture you recognize and when you take them he breathes in deeply for one second, two, three—

Your ears pop and you blink the dazzling remnants of Hope out of your eyes and then keep blinking. The world’s turned white all around you. 

“We hardly ever see snow,” Jake says all in a rush. “I thought it would be fun! I brought snowshoes so we can go exploring later if you want, and I brought, umm.” He sticks out a hand and goes glassy-eyed before a thermos pops into his hand. “Hot chocolate!” He hands it to you. “Sweets are good for birthdays.” 

You take the thermos and hook it under your elbow so you can pull your gloves out of your coat pockets and put them on. The scene around you is silent and glistening with snow. You sank in to mid-shin when Jake teleported you here. It’s very peaceful. You’ve landed somewhere mountainous, you think, with tall dark pines and thin, cold air. 

“Thanks,” you say, and take a sip of your hot chocolate. It’s very warm and recognizably Jane’s own creation that Jake had probably swiped. You hold it out to Jake and he takes it back for a sip. “What’s the plan? Wander the snowy woods? Look for animals that would put Gcatav’s rack to shame?” 

Jake beams. “Sun’s about to come up,” he says. “That’s all absolutely can-do, but later.” He gives you the thermos back. “No dilly dallying, come on!” He drags you through the heavy snow and through the trees down to a fallen tree. You stand and watch, bemused, as he courteously tries to smack the snow off of it so you both can sit. He’s only sort of successful but he sits and looks at you hopefully so you contain your habitual snark and sit at his side. He immediately wraps an arm around your back and pulls you closer. You can’t exactly feel it through all the layers but it’s a nice gesture. 

“We’re facing east,” Jake says. You were right about being on a mountain. This little spot is situated on a flatter area than the rest of the slopes, and you can see clear over the trees to the distant skyline on a more distant mountainside. You take another sip of hot chocolate to warm your nose and then pass it back to him. 

“Front row seats,” you say, and don’t bother pretending you’re too cool to lean into his side. It’s a little chilly, but you just sink into comfortable silence and share the hot chocolate as the sky ahead of you lightens, the few clouds pinkening. You feel almost meditative with the edge of lingering sleepiness and the cold sting of air. Inside your jacket you’re still warm, and you sigh without meaning to, breath pluming out. 

“Everything hunky-dory?” Jake asks

“Yeah, I’m good,” you say, meaning it. “Is this where you were, yesterday? Scoping this out?” 

You feel him nod. “Sure was.“

The first hint of sun breaks the horizon, just a hint of light, and then starts to climb higher in a blaze of gold. You watch the whole sky wash purple and pink and orange, the darker blues get chased into brightness. The sun rises higher and higher until it breaks free of the horizon at last, reflecting luminous against the snow and casting long shadows behind the trees. You shut your eyes against the brightness for a moment and then open them again. The trees lose their formless darkness and gain detail and color. 

“Okay,” you say, breaking the quiet. “I have to admit my first thought was that an early morning wilderness adventure was more your speed than mine, but this is… pretty fucking rad. It’s, uh. Actually kind of beautiful.” 

Jake knocks his head into the side of yours in a friendly way, impact muffled by your hoods. “Worth getting up for?” 

You almost say something like  _ jury’s still out _ or  _ depends, is this my whole present? _ Instead what comes out is just, “Yeah. It was.” You drink the last of the hot chocolate and captchalogue the thermos. “We’re going to get chilled just sitting here, though. Should keep moving. You said something about snowshoes?” 

“I most certainly did,” Jake says. You regret your words when he pulls away from you to slide off of the tree, sinking immediately into the snow. “Do you know how to walk in them?” 

“No clue,” you say. 

“Neither do I!” Jake decaptchalogues them onto the snow. “We’ll figure it out, I’m sure.” 

It’s a hassle and a half getting them on and tightening the straps with your gloved hands, and then the two of you make fun of each other’s shitty attempts at walking in them until you get the hang of it. It’s worth the initial difficulty, though, to get to walk through the trees as the sun climbs higher and higher in the sky. Later in the morning you do see a deer, sudden and shocking. It stares at you with large, wild eyes, bigger than you expected. Jake grabs your arm and you both freeze. It doesn’t do anything but stand there are stare you down. You try to subtly pull your phone out for a picture but end up dropping first your gloves and then your phone in the attempt. When you swear and drop to a crouch to pick it all up the deer disappears back into the trees as swiftly as it appeared. 

“Oh well,” Jake says as you try to brush the snow off your phone. “It didn’t have antlers anyway.” 

Eventually you both get hungry and have to leave. You almost don’t want to go. In your life there’s not been too many times where total solitude meant peace, but this cold, clear morning on a mountain very far from even a small town has had a hushed serenity that you want to hold on to. 

You settle for shoving Jake’s shoulder awkwardly when you agree to head out. “Hey. Thanks. This was pretty sweet.” It’s way too cold for any real funny business but you hook a hand through his scarf to pull him in for a kiss anyway. 

“You’re welcome. Happy birthday,” Jake says when you pull back. “Also your nose right arctic. Let’s get back to Jane before it runs off in protest.” He takes your hands again and you get one last look at the snow-covered trees before everything turns white.


End file.
